Month: October 2015

Bloomberg – by Jeff Green

The weeks before Halloween are a busy season for Wal-Mart’s little-known trust and safety compliance team. Their job is to come between the 40,000 costumes sold on the retail giant’s sprawling website and the 140 million shoppers who might be offended by those costumes.

In a win for the team, Wal-Mart customers haven’t been able to purchase the white hotpants and wig marketed as a Caitlyn Jenner transgender parody costume. A decapitated Cecil the Lion head sold with a dentist’s smock? Banned on Walmart.com. Don’t expect to see the gratuitously distasteful costume meant to invoke the dispute between Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump. Nor a sex-themed vampire suit sold under the name Down for the Count. Those were low-hanging fruit.   Continue reading “How Wal-Mart’s Halloween Swat Team Stops Offensive Costumes”

RT

Nearly 30 women at an immigration detention facility in Texas have begun a hunger strike. In their letters, made public by a civil rights group, they highlight “grave injustices,” detentions of up to 18 months, inedible food, and “little or no security.”

“There are grave injustices being committed, detentions spanning eight months, 10 months, a year, a year and a half, so in the end we are being told we have no rights and will be deported, with offensive words and gestures that make us feel worthless,” Magdrola, from Guatemala, wrote in her letter, published by Grassroots Leadership along with 16 letters from other detainees.   Continue reading “‘They treat us like dogs’: 27 women detained in Texas immigration center begin hunger strike”

RT

A 16-year-old girl has been diagnosed with bubonic plague in Crook County, Oregon, the local health authority confirmed.

“The girl is believed to have acquired the disease from a flea bite during a hunting trip near Heppner in Morrow County that started on October16. She reportedly fell ill on October 21 and was hospitalized in Bend on October 24. She is recovering in the hospital’s intensive care unit,” the official press release says.   Continue reading “Teenage girl diagnosed with bubonic plague in Oregon”

ARS Technica – by David Kravets

You gotta love this twisted logic.

In May, a federal appeals court declared the National Security Agency’s bulk telephone metadata collection program illegal because it wasn’t authorized under the Patriot Act, as the Obama administration and its predecessor administration had maintained.   Continue reading “Court says it’s legal for NSA to spy on you because Congress says it’s OK”

Freedom Outpost – by Tim Brown

Well, just like they do when it’s voting time, it seems like cronies in New York are enrolling dead people in the unconstitutional healthcare program called Obamacare.

Politics on the Hudson reports:

A state audit Thursday found that New York’s health exchange enrolled hundreds of dead people at a $325,000 cost to taxpayers.
Continue reading “Guess How Many Hundreds of Dead People were enrolled in the NY Obamacare Exchange & How Much it Cost Taxpayers?”

Platts

Several US companies have sought permission from the Obama administration to export crude oil to European, Asian, African and Latin American countries, but have been rejected because they have failed to qualify for strict exemptions to long-standing crude export restrictions, a key administration official said Thursday.

These companies, many of whom sought exchanges with countries similar to a 75,000 b/d exchange announced by Mexico’s Pemex this week, were not allowed to export US crude to several other countries because they could not prove the oil could not be marketed in the US, the US Commerce Department’s Matthew Borman said during an Argus conference in Houston.   Continue reading “Commerce Department Denied Several US Crude Oil Exchange Applications: Official”

Global Research – by Eric Zuesse

On Sunday the 25th of October, Republican U.S. Presidential aspirant Donald Trump was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union” show, and was asked about Iraq. He said,

“I told you very early on, if we’re going to leave, take the oil.”

He then repeated this theme again, in this CNN interview:   Continue reading “Donald Trump Says the U.S. Should Have Stolen Iraqis’ Oil After Destroying Their Country”

Sputnik

The Russian Defense Ministry has urged NATO and Saudi Arabia to explain accusations that Russian airstrikes had allegedly targeted hospitals in Syria, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Tuesday.

“We have summoned the US, UK, French, German, Italian, Saudi Arabian, Turkish and NATO military attaches today asked to give a formal explanation of these statements or to refute them. This especially concerns a number of outrageous allegations in the English-speaking media about alleged airstrikes on hospitals,” Antonov said.   Continue reading “Moscow Summons US, NATO, Saudi Arabia Envoys Over Civilian Deaths Claims”

The Free Thought Project – by William N. Grigg

The FBI is helping police nation-wide get into the Halloween spirit by concocting a scary story that is every bit as implausible as the seasonal fare offered on television and movie screens.  The Bureau claims that an obscure, previously unknown “anarchist” group supposedly called the National Liberation Militia is planning to use Halloween festivities to ambush police officers.   Continue reading “FBI Continues False “War on Cops” – Halloween Style – If You Wear a Mask, You are a Suspect”

KATU – by Bob Heye

PORTLAND, Ore. — Harriette Charney, 90, was wrapping up a 2-week visit with her son and getting ready to fly back to the East Coast, when she and her son got to Portland International Airport Saturday morning.

Alan Charney watched as his mom was pulled aside after going through a full-body scanner.

“It was obvious,” says Charney, “they were going into a search, but I presumed they were just going to sort of pat her down.”   Continue reading “Son says 90-year-old mom told to remove blouse during TSA search”